The project is to establish a doctoral bridge between the MS program in Biology at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and the Ph.D programs in the molecular biosciences at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Piscataway Campus. The Ph.D. programs represent a collaborative effort between UMDNJ and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The student population at the MS institution is overwhelmingly under represented in the biomedical sciences and there is no doctoral program at that institution as an option for these students. The plan of the program involves three years of course work and research, one year at UPR, with the remaining two years at UMDNJ. Upon successful completion of this three year program, the MS degree will be awarded from UPR and the student will be admitted with advanced standing to Ph.D. programs at UMDNJ. The program will interface with a variety of other minority initiative programs at UMDNJ, including the UMDNJ-Rutgers Pipeline Program which supports minority students during initial years of graduate study. The program already has a strong track record in recruiting, retaining, and completing minority graduate students, and an excellent working relationship exists and is well demonstrated between UMDNJ and UPR.